Google has partnered with 11 big-traffic sites which will be the first to get the +1 button, including Rotten Tomatoes, Reuters, Best Buy, BloomBerg and the Washington Post.

The button will also start appearing on the Google-owned Android Market, YouTube and Blogger.

Another way to not use words

The extended +1 rollout comes hot on the heels of Twitter's launch of the Follow button for websites, meaning your friends will be in no doubt about whether or not you're a fan of a web page now as you 'Like' it, 'Follow' it and then '+1' it.

Google says that the +1 button should "make search results even more helpful and relevant" – which essentially means we'll all be helping Google sell more targeted advertising, as our own Gary Marshall points out.